NAICS 711300, Explained: The Federal Code Behind Every “Concert Industry” Statistic

Industry statistics inherit the boundaries of the codes that define them, and the code most often standing behind a “live events industry” number is 711300. Live Index's own Promoter Workforce indicator is built on it, which obliges this publication to explain, precisely, what the code does and does not contain.

Where 711300 sits in the federal taxonomy

The North American Industry Classification System descends from sector 71 — Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation — through subsector 711, Performing Arts, Spectator Sports, and Related Industries, to industry group 7113, Promoters of Performing Arts, Sports, and Similar Events. The shorthand “711300” used in BLS statistical products refers to this promoter group. The tree below renders the full spine and the two neighboring branches that every reader of promoter statistics needs to know about.

711310 versus 711320: with and without facilities

The group divides on one axis: facilities. 711310 covers establishments that organize, promote or manage live events — concerts and festivals included — in facilities they themselves manage and operate, and it also covers establishments that operate arenas, stadiums and theaters for rent to other promoters. 711320 covers promoters working in facilities managed by others; theatrical booking agencies (except motion picture) are classified here. A promoter that owns its amphitheatre and one that rents someone else's are, to the federal taxonomy, different industries.

What 711300 is not

It is not the live music industry. Sports promoters and similar-event promoters sit inside the same code, and no federal product splits concert promotion out of it. Nor does it contain the people most readers picture: musicians and bands are classified under 711130, Musical Groups and Artists, and booking agents and personal managers under 711410 — different industry groups entirely. A 711300 employment figure therefore counts promoter-establishment payrolls, never artists and never agents, a boundary that the employment data guide carries through every federal dataset that touches live music.